The Travel and Tourism Advisory Board consists of 30 business leaders from the travel and tourism industry who are appointed by the Secretary of Commerce to advise him on industry-related matters and provide policy recommendations.

In order to have a full complement of Board members, Secretary Locke recently appointed Helane Becker, Vice President, Dahlman Rose & Company, Todd Davidson, CEO, Travel Oregon, and Chandrakant (C.K.) Patel, President, BMV Holdings, Inc. to fulfill the current term of the Board.

"Our objective of doubling exports in five years as outlined by President Obama's National Export Initiative will rely on a strong travel and tourism industry," said Secretary Locke. "The travel and tourism industry is profoundly important to the U.S. economy and job creation, as it accounts for 24 percent of U.S. services exports and eight percent of all U.S. exports."

Travel and tourism is a $1.3 trillion sector of the U.S. economy or nearly three percent of Gross Domestic Product, supporting 8.2 million U.S. jobs. Critical to the nation's overall economic health, the travel and tourism industry is one of the top employers for more than half of the U.S. states and territories.

The industry is seeing signs of growth as the U.S. Department of Commerce recently announced that there was an 11 percent increase in both international arrivals to the United States and in receipts for the first 10 months of 2010 compared to the same period of last year.

The International Trade Administration (ITA) improves the global business environment and helps U.S. companies and workers compete at home and abroad.

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